Herald of Destiny
by JustAnotherPseudonym
Summary: What if Regina can only give and find a happy ending for her and Emma by recasting the curse? SwanQueen
1. Herald of Destiny

A/N: Of course they are not my characters. I just wanted to write a little something. This is what I came up with. Let me know what you think.

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She walks through her home trying to glean from the inanimate structure the meaning of happiness. She wants to know why she found happiness within these walls and she wants to know if such feelings can be replicated elsewhere. She's been told that it's not the structure that matters, but she doesn't believe those sentimental notions.

This place, this home means something to her. It holds value beyond the dollars of which it is worth. And, by the mere fact that she is leaving it behind, means something as well.

She cannot take her home with her. It must be left like a page turned by its reader, it's served its purpose. It told part of the story but is not the complete story. It is not even the beginning nor is it the end. It stands somewhere in the middle where nothing definite exists.

"Mom?" a voice calls to her from the doorway. "Are you ready to leave?"

She turns to her son in a staggered movement that rips her from her past back into her current reality. This no longer is her home. "Did you find anything you want to keep?" She responds with a question since there is no easy answer to what has been asked of her.

"What's the point?"

Her son's tone catches her off guard since she so easily hears her own pessimism lying within the words. "Don't," she pleads.

"Don't what?" The rebellious response comes quickly. "It's stupid to act like I'm not being made to move because my parents hate each other."

"We don't…" She doesn't finish because they both know it's best to stop lying, and a blatant denial veers too close to the precipice of truth. "Let's go."

"Is your soon to be ex wife going to meet up with us?" They both know that the words are meant to start another argument about joint custody and flaccid attempts of making the best of a poorly managed situation.

It would be easy to fall into the argument. She has become quite comfortable with arguing. It is much easier than being upset and wishing for something to change that has not and will never be just as she wishes it to be. But, she will not be pulled into an argument by her teenage son whose sole purpose of late has been to conjure up malcontent.

"Your mother," she carefully enunciates, "will be meeting us for dinner."

Her son feigns surprise. "You mean she hasn't canceled yet?"

"Be fair." She doesn't know why, but she feels the need to defend her wife even now when it's no longer her place to do so. "She was stuck working."

"You didn't get stuck," her son points out. "You managed to make time for dinner."

"Henry, be fair." It seems that standing in this house, this place that once housed her happiness has somehow managed to rob her of her anger and her readiness for an argument. "It could have just as easily happened to me. Emma had to stay and I didn't. It's that simple."

Henry's eyes widen as she suddenly doesn't appear as surefooted in her diatribe as she once might have been. He has grown accustomed to speaking ill of his mother and only being met with silence. This is only one of the very few moments in the last year he can recall his mom coming to his mother's defense.

"Don't look so surprised." Regina turns away from her son as she softly admits, "I don't hate your mother." It seems impossible to hate someone who she once shared this happiness with.

"Whatever," Henry says in lieu of trying to understand the meaning of his mom's words.

Upon silent agreement, they walk out of what once was their home. Regina locks the door behind them and then slips the key into her pocket. It's supposed to go to the new noble that would rule this place during their next meeting but she thinks that perhaps she might find reason to not give it up. It might be the one thing she allows herself to keep. It is the one thing that she can cling to that hasn't been tainted by the bitterness and ill fitted love that has somehow become integral to her existence.

As she turns away from the front door and begins to follow Henry towards the car, she once again feels herself being pulled into memories. Each step she takes away brings her closer to them, and she's suddenly afraid that her future will consist of nothing but memories. She is not the woman she used to be. She can no longer identify her own reflection.

Each time she takes a chance to look upon any reflective surface, she's always introduced to another facet of a stranger. Even now as she looks into the window of her car door, she's presented with eyes that appear unenthusiastic with life. If these eyes, Regina reasons, are the eyes Henry is met with, then she can't blame her son for trying to instigate an argument. Anger is a fiery emotion that is full of life. It is worth more than the…apathetic veneer that fills the void within the windows to her soul.

Regina shakes her head and then reminds herself that she is the unflappable Queen. She has cowered millions. She could win awards attesting to how hot her emotion burned. She should be able to pull out some form of emotion to infuse into her countenance. She just has to remember what…

She rolls her eyes and then violently reaches out to open her car door. She begins mentally chastising herself for once again falling into the vicious loop of her memories. Remembering emotion means remembering happiness. It means looking back to when she and her wife were more than a broken cliché of love.

For now, she will have to discover some respite in her apathy. It is better than her depression and it is healthier than her anger. It will have to do, at least for now since there is nothing she can draw from that won't threaten to tear her apart.

"You okay?" Henry softly asks. Now knowing that he is somehow intruding upon something he doesn't and could never quite understand.

Regina looks to her son and doesn't try to feign a smile. "I will be," she promises and then admits, because she suddenly remembers she is the parent, "don't worry. Everything will be okay."

"You sure?" Henry asks again, because, from years of careful observation, he has learned when his mother is acting. He knows the difference between the Queen and Regina Mills.

"Of course," Regina quickly replies as she starts up the car and then begins backing it up out of the driveway. "Will you text your mother and let her know that we are on our way?" She quickly changes the subject because she has promised to not let Henry see the breakdowns.

Henry's eyes roam over his mom. He can see through the diversion, but he chooses not to say anything about it. He doesn't want to talk about whatever it is going on with his mom anymore than his mom wants to talk about it. It's easier all around for him to turn his attention back to his phone and type up a quick message to his mother.

Even after the message is sent, Henry keeps his attention on his phone. He pretends to check other messages just so he can remain removed from whatever it is his mom is experiencing. Henry tells himself that he is just fourteen and it isn't his responsibility to make sure that his mom is okay. Besides, he knows that nothing he says and nothing he might do will help. All the things that used to make his mom smile have long since disappeared under the constant weight of being the White Knight's wife.

His mother's mantle of destiny has taken a toll on his family that he had never and could have never predicted when he first sought to save the world. He didn't know that there was a reason the stories he read stopped when the hero first found true love. It would have killed the thrill of the story if its end mentioned that being the White Knight often meant the world came first no matter what. It meant that those closest to the hero paid the highest price and could ask for the least.

He had, at first, thrilled at being the son of a hero. He had considered it his honor, and it would be his honor to follow in his mother's foot steps. But, as time went on, his idealization lessened and his simple desire for his mother's attention grew. He always came in as a distant second to saving the world, and selfishly he hates it. He hates that his mother is the hero and that he is her son.

"You're scowling at your phone, dear." Regina reaches over and brushes her son's hair behind his ear. He has let it grown much longer than she would have liked, but in her effort to respect and encourage his individuality she refrains from forcing him to cut it.

Henry looks at his mom, wide eyed at having been caught in a moment of wishing Emma wasn't the White Knight. He has never said it aloud, but he suspects that Regina knows his secret desires, because Regina not only knows him but also understands him. He knows that it is ironic that the parent he had so desperately tried to push away is really the one that stands by his side and looks over him no matter what might be happening in their world full of magic and myth.

"Do you ever wonder if it would have been better not to have broken the curse?" He stumbles over his words not really wanting to ask the question, but having to.

Regina's eyes roam along the frown streaking itself across Henry's face. He is an intelligent boy, near becoming a man, but he is still young. He still has much to learn about what it means to be a prince. "I have come to learn, Henry, that that life was an illusion that's existence was no more fulfilling than a magician freeing a dove that he put in the cage in the first place."

"But still," Henry presses on not really knowing what it is this time he wants to say or wants to ask. He just knows that visiting their home in Storybrooke for perhaps the last time left him more nostalgic for the cursed town than ever before.

Knowing this conversation cannot and should not be had while driving, Regina eases the car off the road. When they are parked, she turns to her son so that he has her undivided attention.

"Your mother is and will always be my true love, Henry," she admits for the first time in a long time to herself and to her son. "However," she takes a deep breath and then slowly releases it, "she is also, arguably, the most important person in all the land. Her destiny, our destiny, would never have allowed the curse to remain intact."

"But her destiny is to love us," Henry argues.

"And she does," Regina just as quickly iterates.

"Then why?" Henry wonders. "Why don't we get the Happy Ending?"

That is the question Regina suspects that they are all wondering. Emma had destroyed the curse and then Regina had been destined to save the Savior from a world that would ultimately suck them all back to it, and somehow between the breaking and the saving Regina and Emma realized that they were better together than apart. Then, somehow between the rebuilding and the ruling of empire, Regina and Emma realized that they couldn't be together since they were so often apart.

Apparently, Happy Endings only ever work out when the couple is actually in the same vicinity. It doesn't appear to work out so well when one half of the couple is off fighting great battles and restoring peace while the other half rebuilds an empire using the very magic that had destroyed it in the first place.

Regina opens her mouth to respond to her son, but her words come in too short supply. She has nothing to tell him since she has not yet found anything to tell to herself. She could argue that she doesn't deserve her happy ending, but she doesn't believe that the world would also deny Emma and Henry theirs. Then, she is suddenly reminded of her first marriage.

"Duty," she finally says, "is far more powerful than what we would perhaps like."

"I don't think I want to be a prince anymore," Henry childishly replies.

Nor, Regina silently admits, does she want to be Queen, but she has regained her thrown because she is one of very few with the power to wield it. She is more than the delicate runaway of her youth. She is more than the Evil Queen terrorizing a world under the umbrella of her pain. She is a powerful monarch who stands steady against the tides of chaos, and her son is the prince. His destiny is still unclear to her and to Emma, but they both know that his birthright carries the weight of their legacies.

Regina reaches over and rests her hand on Henry's arm. "Then you will be the best king, because if you thirst for power then it corrupts you."

Henry nods knowing that Regina is speaking from her own experiences. She is unafraid to let her past be his lessons, and he respects her all the more for it. He cherishes her honesty and her willingness to speak about all those things she had, at one time, fought so ardently to keep secret.

"You still love her, right?" Henry asks, looking more like the young boy Regina remembers holding onto after he woke from night terrors than the young man who was to be the prince.

"More today than yesterday," she readily answers not caring how vulnerable or weak it might make her sound.

"Then prove it," he challenges her, meeting her eyes directly. "Recast the curse."

Regina is unprepared for the intensity pouring into her from her son. He is not without his own magic nor is he without his own bit of darkness. "Whom would you have me kill to cast it?" She doesn't coil away from his anger. She is well equipped to meet it head on.

"You're even stronger now than you were before," he contends. "You could create a better curse. You could make it so that no one has to die."

"Someone always dies, Henry," Regina cautions. "Someone always pays the price for magic."

"But…"

"No," Regina interrupts. She is done with this conversation. She is done with being tempted by a possibility she considered when she first realized she was losing her wife to the damned greater good. She did not need to hear her son begging for something that, even after all this time, tempts her.

"Then do something!" He pleads. "Do something to save us since Emma can't."

Regina turns away from her son no longer able to handle him alone. She wants her wife back at her side explaining the ways of the world to their child. She is tired of once again being a single mother. She looks out the driver's side window to the land they are currently visiting. Storybrooke was once their home. Now, it has simply been annexed by her great kingdom. It is amazing, Regina thinks, how a little bit of time and the threat of being eaten by an ogre could turn an angry mob out for her blood into her citizenry seeking protection.

"Mom?" Henry softly calls to her, after the silence lingers too long between them. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…"

"No," Regina just as softly interrupts him, "you should."

She offers nothing else as she puts the car back into drive and then pulls back onto the open road. They ride in silence the rest of the way to the restaurant and even maintain silence as they are taken to their seats where Emma is already waiting for them.

She has obviously made an effort to show up on time for once, knowing the importance of this last chance meeting.

"Henry," Emma calls to her son first. It is infinitely easier to meet his eyes than his mom's. "It's good to see you."

She wraps her arms around him and forces herself not to react when he unenthusiastically returns her embrace.

"Hey, Emma," he weakly greets her and then hurries to sit down in order to create distance between them.

Regina looks on, empathetic to her wife's experience with their tepid son. She knows what that feels like and wishes that Henry wasn't so quick to pick a side. She should be happy that Henry finally chose her over Emma, but she is long past being petty about such things.

In an effort to ease Emma's hurt, Regina steps forward and encircles her wife in a tight embrace. "He doesn't mean it," she whispers so only that Emma can hear her.

"Yes he does," Emma easily rejects Regina's offer of comfort since it is a lie. "It's good to see you, though."

Regina pulls slightly out of her wife's embrace. "So it is," she replies, trying her best to release one measly little smile.

"Thank you," Emma says and then leans forward and places a chaste kiss upon Regina's lips.

"What for?" Regina asks as she lets their hold to continue to linger.

"For missing me," Emma responds as if the answer should be obvious despite the cavernous hold of destiny that pulls them apart.

"Indeed," Regina says as she finally pulls away. Immediately, she misses Emma's hold. Her wife is the addiction that Regina cannot quit.

"Are we going to eat or what?" Henry breaks through his parents' haze. He is accustomed to their physical affection, but he is not as quite as adept at watching them say their last goodbyes.

"Despite what you may think, young man, you must still respect us," Regina reproves, knowing that her words may be severe but she is running thin on patience.

"No worries," Emma quickly cuts in. "Henry's right. We should order something. We wouldn't want the people around here thinking that the royals are too good for the food."

For an attempt at a joke, Emma's words ring hollow. Still Regina tries to smile yet again. She promises that she will smile at least one genuine smile tonight.

They take their seats and silence immediately envelopes them. Of all the things they should be saying, none of them can think of a way to voice it. This isn't supposed to be a last goodbye though it might feel like it. They live in the same castle within the same kingdom and neither Emma nor Regina can simply move away.

Their marriage binds the kingdoms together and is an integral part of making all the puzzle pieces of their land fit together in harmony. Their divorce is in name only. They cannot part ways like any couple that decides their relationship has run its course. The realm must be stable. The people must be protected.

"How's school?" Emma too loudly asks Henry. She is eager to say something, to say anything in order to push away the silence. She remembers when there was a time when silence wasn't so offensive.

"School?" Henry repeats almost as if he is inquiring if this is the best his mother can do.

Emma shrugs her shoulders, knowing that she should be able to do better than asking about something so cliché. She should already know the details about Henry's schooling. She should already know that his tutors are reporting his stilted attitude and lack of enthusiasm. He had once wanted to learn everything there was to know. Now, he simply lets time pass by without interest.

In this, he takes after Regina. His method of coping with stress is to withdraw. It is why he is now drawing a safe distance away from Emma. He doesn't know how else to protect himself from the pain of seeing her.

"How long are you staying in Storybrooke?" Regina asks having decided to pick up the mantle of conversation.

Emma gratefully accepts Regina's meager offering of salvation. "Not long. We took care of the giant troll so the portal bridge is safe. Juliet says that the trade caravans will be starting up again tomorrow."

"Yes, I had heard that." Regina feigns her interest.

"Yeah," Emma nods, "so that's good."

"How are…" Emma reaches out and starts playing with the straw resting benignly in her glass of water. "How are things?"

Regina looks around, her eyes capturing those who dared to look at her. This is no place to talk about the business of the realm even it is all they had left to talk about. A change of topic was in order and the only thing Regina could think of to say involved the house they had so readily called a home. It had been the place they escaped to when they needed a break from their lives. It had been their happiness personified that was now simply going to be a house for nobility and special in memories only.

"I should freshen up before the food arrives," Regina pushes her chair back and then quickly stands. "I'll be back shortly." She moves towards the general direction of the bathroom but before she can reach the confined space, decides better of it and moves out to the balcony cordoned off for VIP persons only.

The balcony is empty sans the scattering of chairs, giving Regina a moment of solitude that she so desperately needs. Today hasn't been an easy day, nor has it been the roughest. But, it is Henry's plea, him asking for her to perform magic that makes her seek out this reprieve.

Regina walks forward and then leans against the rail that is supposed to protect anyone from falling off over the edge. She looks down the four stories towards the ground, but upon finding nothing of interest there looks up to the sky. She idly wonders how her stars have aligned themselves to write out her destiny.

She wonders if she was always destined to be queen, and wonders if she was always meant to be broken. She wonders why she was chosen to be somebody in the world instead of a faceless villager living day by day like a bee in a hive serving its queen.

Why was it that her destiny asked of her to be a fool falling from a cloud like a raindrop being shoved to the ground? What price did she need to pay to be the image hidden in the painted tapestry of life?

"If you jump," Emma's voice fills the air with its intent, "I'll jump to save you."

Regina didn't turn to look at her wife. "Even if it kills us both?" She questions knowing that they are speaking in euphemisms.

"For you, yes," Emma readily answers.

"Today Henry asked me for all of this disappear," Regina confesses.

Emma makes it to the railing and easily rests her body against Regina's. "He's a smart kid," she whispers.

Regina falls into Emma's strong body, having no qualms with letting Emma hold her weight. "He is desperate," Regina conveys. "All of us are."

"You know that," Emma begins to say, but Regina stops her by gripping onto the arms that have snaked around her waist from behind.

"No more apologies," Regina orders. "No more wishing that things were different. They are as they are and as they should be."

"And us?" Emma questions, sounding so much like Henry as he plead for Regina to save them all.

"There will always be an us," Regina bravely declares since she now understands destiny and the circular nature of things. She believes that one day she and Emma will find each other again and will find happiness, even if their happiness isn't in this time and space.

"Aren't I supposed to be the optimist?" Emma casually jokes.

Regina turns in Emma's embrace so that they are facing each other. "It's not optimism, my dear. It's destiny." She then leans in and captures Emma's lips for a passionate kiss that proclaims their right to future happiness.

When they pull apart, Emma keeps her eyes closed choosing to remain lost in the moment. She doesn't want to return to the world that exploits the chasm that has developed between her and Regina. She doesn't want to be pulled away from her Only One.

" Recast the curse," she begs without pride, "please."

"No," Regina rebukes, her refusal is just as strong as a blade cutting against a torrential wind.

"They gave me a new name in the last battle," Emma errantly confesses. "I'm also now The Lionheart."

Regina nods her understanding but says nothing. There is nothing she can say to the woman who is a hero too afraid to step away from the title. Emma, maybe like all born heroes, cannot deny the pursuit to save everyone and anyone. It is a trait that Regina cannot help but equally love and despise.

"It is well deserved," Regina eventually says.

"Do you know why Henry's stories always stopped after the Happily Ever After?" Emma asks as she pulls Regina impossibly closer, but doesn't wait for Regina to respond. "The heroes die shortly after saving the world."

Regina's body stiffens. She has always despised the risks inherent in Emma's position. She knew, long before Emma ever realized, just how long a hero has to live. Heroes, like milk cartons, came with an expiration date.

And that, in truth, is why Regina was so ready to run away from her marriage. She wants to not have to care when Emma meets the edge of sword she can't block or a tip of an arrow she can't dodge. The only ones to grow old in the stories Henry had adored, were the bitterly angry widows. Good might always conquer Evil, but heroes did have a tendency to become martyrs. They inevitably fell to rile up a great wind of change.

So whether it was kosher or not, Regina could not see her hero fall. She refused to be a widow. She refused to let damnable defunct destiny to take one more thing from her, and since Emma couldn't turn her back on destiny Regina decided to turn her back on Emma.

Divorce was not an invention of their world. It is unheard of in Fairy Tale and a foreign thing. Yet, it was something that both Regina and Emma understood. It is a thing that they carried with them into their homeland upon their visitation into the false world without magic. To them, it was a thing of merit since they both so easily ran away from the pain instead of finding a reason to stay.

" Recast the curse," Emma once again pleaded.

"I'm not the only one with magic," Regina stubbornly pointed out.

"No," Emma shook her head, "but you're the only brave one."

There was a difference, they both recognized, between bravery and being dutiful. Emma always was dutiful. She saved because she was expected to. She risked because she was expected to. She lived for others because it was written that she would. Even staring in the face of danger, didn't make her brave.

Regina closed her eyes as she leans forward to kiss Emma again. She wants to get lost in the feeling being near the other woman evokes. She wants to feel her heart beating uncontrollably and her stomach rolling with the passion. She wants to get lost in this home she has only ever been able to visit. She cannot take up permanent residence since Emma is so easily called away for heroics.

As they once again pull apart, Regina gently whispers, "Thy will be done."

Then, like an earthquake settling the earth into order under the surface, the world shifts. All that is old is new again and all that was becomes undone. It is a powerful thing that sweeps across the land, this time leaving no hostages to tell tales. Regina quickly leans forward once more to kiss her wife. She has had every intention to be the Good Witch. She has had every desire to see this new world through until its bitter end, but she was not born a hero. She was a villain and villainy suited her well because it meant she could grant Henry's and Emma's wish.

She could restore their happiness and beg that things turned out differently even if Emma once again broke the reins of their happiness. She hoped that like the magician's dove, they would forget what freedom felt like. She wants to be held in the steel cage ensconced with her wife and their son.

"You better love me," Regina orders as they pull apart on the precipice of the implosion of the world. "You better not let me go again."

"I won't, "Emma promises knowing that Regina will somehow, once again, pay dearly for casting something this powerful. "From now on, I'm your Lionheart."

Regina looks at her wife and then out towards the cloud of magic she has summoned. Again, she feels like the fool, but maybe this time she is simply a fool in love instead of a puppet for revenge.

She closes her eyes and leans towards Emma again, but doesn't quite make it before the winds heralding change envelopes them. When she opens her eyes, it is forced upon her from the blaring sound of an alarm clock. She peeks over at it seeing it is six in the morning. It's time for her to get ready to go to work, but she can't quite force herself to get up. She's wrapped in a warm embrace and feels completely in love.

She turns to look at her hand where her wedding band glistens from the morning sun pouring in through the window. She then looks towards the woman she knows is sharing her bed.

"It's too early to be morning," her bedmate proclaims. "Don't get up."

"I should get Henry ready for school," Regina says. "I highly doubt he'll get up on his own."

"Henry?" Her lover sits up. "Who's Henry?"

Regina's eyes widen and her breath hitches. "Our son?" she explains. "Henry," she repeats as if the name will conjure up some memory that simply no longer exists.

"You feelin' okay?" Emma adjusts her body so that she is now sitting up with her wife. "Did you have another one of those dreams about a Fairy World?"

"No, I…" Regina's voice trails off. She doesn't know how to respond. Henry, her mind screams out the name. Her Henry. Gone. Everything he gave her and everything he meant. Gone.

Magic always has a price.

"Regina?" Emma questions her worry clearly etched out across her face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Regina shakes her head and quickly moves up off the bed. "Everything is fine, dear."

"Tell that to your face," Emma sarcastically replies, "cause it thinks you're lying."

"No, no," Regina rubs at her forehead as if she instantaneously can rub away the memories of their son. "I'm fine. I'm…"

"Not fine?" Emma fills in the blank.

Regina looks to Emma and then towards their bedroom door. They are back in the mansion where a noble is supposed to live. Regina can hear the birds chirping happily outside and it looks like the beginnings of another perfect day in Storybrooke, Maine with the Evil Queen as a mayor the Lionheart as a sheriff, and no Henry around to herald the end of the curse.

Maybe, Regina hopes, just maybe their son has finally met his destiny.


	2. Destiny's Revenge

Okay so I thought I was done with this storyline. Apparently I wasn't. Thank for the reviews. They are read and greatly appreciated.

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Storybrooke, Maine is no longer a forgotten town hiding in the mist. It is a bustling municipality that has recently been named as the number one place to live in the United States. Its water is clean, the air is fresh, the schools are above par, and the crime rate is low. It is idyllic and stands as the banner for the American Dream.

But, like most dreams, Storybrooke, Maine is an illusion. It is an unreal thing full of unreal people. It is a twice cursed place that exists as a bridge between worlds, and its gatekeeper is an Evil Queen who sits upon a mayoral throne looking across the land, and she is the only one that knows just exactly what this place is. She knows where it comes from and she knows how it fits in the scheming chaos of space and time.

The curse had not been her creation the first time she cast it. But the second time around? Well, that is all her.

It is a thing she crafted with her wishes and desires, thinking all the while that she would never use it. It was supposed to be her 'what if' imaginings much like a pauper who can buy the best of things only in his daydreams. The difference, however, between the Queen and the Pauper are great even if they are bound by their wishes for a better tomorrow. Because, unlike the Pauper the Queen has the power to change everything, and she has. She has massaged destiny to make it just a bit more palatable.

Her mistakes are not to be repeated. She learned her lessons from the first curse and knew exactly how to throw all of its weaknesses away. She even accounted for the stumbling interference of heroes, one of which she is married to.

She built the second curse to act like a Kevlar vest. Its only purpose is to protect her happiness. It is to give nothing, and it is meant to take nothing. It is…terribly simple, much simpler than the first curse she had cast without fully understanding the power she wielded.

The secret in the casting of the second curse was to set everyone free, and, perhaps it has done that. The pauper is a hero in this world for being in the working class. The Queen is only as powerful as the next election, and the water is clean, the air is fresh, the schools are above par, the crime rate is low…

Yet, in this place where even the faceless nobodies are given worth, the Queen is denied complete happiness. It is the price she pays for getting everyone out of the way of destiny. Her son, her Henry is gone. His life was like the log burned in order to keep everyone around it warm.

It was not a meaningless death. It was, in many ways, not just death. It was his sacrifice. It was his legacy. But, it was cold and blank because the Queen is the only one in all the land that remembers it. She is the only one that remembers him at all. Everyone else has the pleasure of throwing him and who he was away with their memories.

The sorrow is a thing the Queen bears alone. It is hers to hold and hers to remember because losing her son is her consequence. It is her price for her selfish magic.

"Madame Mayor?" A timid voice calls to the Queen and unintentionally reminds her that she chose this.

"Yes?" She turns to face one of her many assistants. "Are they ready?"

"Yes, ma'am." The Governor wishes to speak to you first, though."

"Oh?" She raises a brow. "Is he afraid I won't play nice?"

"I wouldn't…" Her assistant's voice falls off. He is never certain how much truth to tell their esteemed Mayor Mills. She is a woman who doesn't suffer fools and nothing he can say about the Governor will make the man look any less foolish. One simply did not try to bully Regina Mills.

Regina waves away her assistant's possible excuses. "Just send the man in."

Her assistant looks down to his shoes, not liking at all that he lost the coin toss with his coworkers and is forced to be the one that bears the bad news. "The gov-governor," he stutters, "requests your presence."

"Does he?" She sounds intrigued, but it like many things is an illusion.

That, unfortunately, is not the worst of the news. "He's also requested that Ms. Swan not attend." If rushing out his words and then stepping back so that he was out of the mayor's line of sight made him a coward then, Regina's assistant would proudly declare his self such.

"Unfortunate," Regina lowly murmurs. Then asks, "Where is he, Shaun?"

Shaun maintains his distance, but dares meet his mayor's eyes. "In the office he was given for his visit."

Regina pulls her blazer more tightly around her body, though it had not fallen out of place. "Very well. Shall we?" She doesn't wait for a response before she moves towards the door and then out of her office. She knows that Shaun will fall in line behind her. He is one of the few assistant that she can tolerate.

It is no lie that good help is hard to find, and Regina finds that to be especially true since the residents of Storybrooke are living off of borrowed memories. Their minds are inherently untrained in the ways of this world.

"Have you spoken to my wife?" Regina voice slices through the intense quiet of their journey.

"Sheriff Swan has insisted on personally seeing to security," Shaun immediately answers. "She said she will join you only after she is sure everything is safe."

Regina cannot hold back the small grin that breaches her irritation. Since this whole number one place to live in America thing, Emma has quickly shown her heroism. She is ever vigilant and ever ready to strike down any evil that might come from the publicity or that might dare harm her Mayor.

"While I am meeting with the Governor, please find my wife and ensure she is by my side in time," Regina orders. "I refuse to take the stage without her hand firmly in mine."

"Yes ma'am," Shaun nods though Regina isn't looking at him.

"Also make sure that she is wearing the jacket I brought for her. I know she doesn't care about her image, but I for one do not wish my wife to be introduced to America with her looking like some sort of character out of the Wild West."

Shaun cannot help but chuckle softly at Regina's appraisal of her wife. "I will tell her that you do not wish to walk the stage with her looking like Wyatt Earp," he promises.

Regina stops walking, though they have not yet reached their destination. "Was that a joke, Shaun?" She asks.

"No, ma'am," Shaun quickly denies though there is a hint of a smirk across his lips. "I find Emma's wardrobe in need of immediate repair."

Regina shakes her head and sighs. "Watch yourself, Shaun. People might think I don't rule with an iron fist."

Having been around the mayor for long enough to recognize her moods, Shaun feels no current threat. He has seen the pointy end of Regina's wrath and the cold spikes of her hatred. Regina can be quite scary but she is not unfair nor is she inhumane. The iron fist she rules with doesn't strangle the life out of her people. It, instead, provides the support needed to hold their weight.

His earlier fear in confronting his mayor didn't come from what she might say or do to him. It came from having to convey to her that the Governor targeted Emma Swan. It is a transgression that no one in Storybrooke dares to commit since they know that belittling or threatening the mayor's wife in any way will make Regina rise up like a serpent ready to attack.

And, in the face of that, Shaun knows that Regina won't always spare the messenger. She demands that anyone under her hierarchy show the same defense and blind devotion to the Sheriff as she does. Her cabinet is to be of one mind and one body. Dissent is only appreciated in rooms with no windows where the doors have been sealed shut. Even if an iron fist is used to protect its people, it is still made of iron.

"Did you defend her?" Regina asks, all joviality gone.

The question throws Shaun slightly off guard and he thinks that maybe he can buy himself time if he feigns ignorance, but ultimately, he knows better. He will easily be caught in his deceit so he must wear his shame. "He is the governor, Madame Mayor," he admits knowing already that he offers nothing but a paltry excuse.

Regina turns to him knowing that Shaun had hoped she wouldn't question him. His willingness to joke with her told her he was falsely secure. "I am your Mayor," she carefully enunciates. "Your actions are my actions, and your actions let the Governor assume that I might cower. Did you think, Shaun that I would cower?"

Shaun's eyes turn away from Regina. He can't meet her intense gaze. "No, ma'am," he whispers since his voice is too shamed to carry strength.

"Then why are you bringing me to him?" She asks.

Suddenly, Shaun realizes that Regina Mills no more intends to meet the Governor than she intends to pick up a broom and use it to fly. This short walk was his test, and he has failed miserably.

Her point made, Regina turns back towards her office. "You will tell our esteemed governor that he will meet me in my office if he wishes to speak to me. I am not a dog that will come running upon demand."

"Of course," Shaun nods. "I will tell him right away."

"No," Regina tilts her head, evaluating the depreciation of his worth, "you won't. You will have Samantha do it for you. You have already been given instruction."

"Yes, ma'am," Shaun bows his head barely fighting off the urge to bow his whole body. "I'll tell Samantha to take care of it and I'll tend to Sheriff Swan."

"See that you do," Regina says as she brushes past him without a glance. She returns to her office and then firmly closes her door. She doesn't want the Governor to arrive thinking she has an open door policy. The only reason the man is in her city in the first place is because of the damned arbitrary list some national magazine put together. The Governor wants to take credit for the prices she's paid to make Storybrooke a place worth living.

It is an election year and he needs Storybrooke to boost his numbers. It is a political game, a game that Regina is more than equipped to participate in. She has ruled empires and conquered lands with Kings far more hostile than the Governor.

Besides, the Governor is in her territory. Unwittingly or not he is allowed to exist here because she allows it. He has no upper hand with which to slap her with. He is powerless and annoying.

Regina walks back to the window she had earlier being staring out of. Her townspeople are lined up outside of city hall waiting to hear their Mayor and Governor speak. And, somewhere in that crowd Emma was out there doing her best to stop anything nefarious before it got out of hand. Briefly, Regina wishes that she could be part of the crowd instead of the Queen up in the castle.

She is ripped from silently indulging her hidden desires when her office door is slammed open. The Governor enters without greeting red faced and angry. He looks like a man who has been affronted by the greatest levels of disrespect.

"Regina," he says without any regard to her title, "I'm not sure you quite understand your place in all this."

Regina slowly turns to face her Governor. "Tell me, sir, prior to your visit today, when was the last time you came to Storybrooke?"

The Governor pulls up short from the question. The answer is obvious. He has never been to Storybrooke before. He only recently found out that the town exists at all.

"I understand," Regina nods not letting the man voice anything he would later learn to regret. "Given the facts as they are, I would venture to say that you, Governor, don't understand your place in all of this."

The Governor's eyes narrow, but then widen as if he suddenly sees something in Regina that he can finally understand. "What is it you want?" He opens negotiations already feeling more surefooted than he did before.

"Want?" Regina moves towards him. "I want nothing." And the things she does want aren't things a mere governor of this world can provide.

"I can see you are an ambitious woman, Regina, and we both know that you can't get far just being the mayor of this little town."

"And how far is it," Regina wonders, "do you think it is I want to go?"

"Well, we both know that I'm headed to the Senate and that will leave the governor's office open." He strolls over to Regina like an overconfident imp and he unfortunately reminds Regina of Rumpelstiltskin. He even has Rumple's stench of deceit.

"And I suppose you will so kindly offer your assistance in gaining your office?" Regina inquires, feeling the lie circulating the air like a vulture waiting for the truth to die.

"All you need to do is to campaign with me," he says laying his cards out on their proverbial table.

"And what of my wife?" She asks.

The Governor shrugs. "That's just politics."

"That is what my family means to you?" She questions. "You want me to tell my wife that a vote means more than she does?"

"Tell her whatever you damn well please," The Governor barks his response. "I don't think she'll care much. She doesn't really strike me as the type to want to parade across the state playing the good housewife."

Well at least in that, Regina concedes, the Governor is right. Emma has never wanted to simply be Regina's wife. Emma values her individuality and Regina will never try and smother it. But, none of that really matters. "My answer is no, Governor," Regina replies.

The Governor's eyes widen at seeing his prey so easily sidestep his trap. "What do you mean, no?"

"I have no desire to leave Storybrooke, nor do I have the desire to cast aside my wife for your political gain." Regina allows the darkness within her to rise. "I don't believe, Governor that you really understand just how important my family and this town are to me."

Deciding on a different tact, the Governor casually declares, "Everybody has their price."

"Everyone also has a breaking point," Regina is quick to counter, "and I assure you will be broken long before my price is met."

"Look here," the Governor begins, having already lost the battle he really could never have hoped to win.

Regina rolls her shoulders back and then takes another step towards the Governor. "I suggest that after tonight you forget about this town, Governor," and then with just a hint of the Evil Queen that lives inside of her making an appearance she adds, "please."

Immediately, the Governor's anger pops like a balloon poked with a pin. "Of course," he agrees. "After tonight, I'll leave Storybrooke alone," he finishes speaking with a somewhat bewildered look on his face as if he doesn't understand why he is so readily agreeing to Regina's request.

Before Regina can pull any further promises from the fool in her trap, Shaun rushes into her office gasping for air. "Madame Mayor," he says, "you need to see this."

Regina immediately forgets about the man she is arguing with. "What's happened?" She demands. "What's wrong?"

"Sheriff Swan is delivering Mary Margaret's baby," Shaun rushes out with the single breath he's managed to hold.

Regina rushes out of her office and towards the gathering crowd just in time to hear her wife assuring Mary Margaret that the end is almost near. Mary's screams fill the air, but are quickly smothered by the sound of a wailing newborn. Emma cradles the child in her arms, looking over all of its fingers and toes not realizing that she is looking upon a sibling.

"It's a girl," Emma proudly proclaims. "She's beautiful."

Regina watches on as Emma wraps the infant in the same jacket Regina had brought for her to wear on stage. She smiles, realizing how easy it is for her wife to give without care. She walks up to join the group and then rests her hand on Emma's shoulder. Emma looks up with a smile. "This is sorta cool, huh?"

"It is," Regina agrees, though she is forcefully biting back her bitterness at seeing Mary Margret cradling a child in her arms, joy streaking unrepentant across her face. "Have you chosen a name?" Regina asks the new parents.

Mary looks to David and then to Emma. "We were thinking of Emma, if that's okay?"

"Emma?" Emma asks taken aback. "Why?" She has never considered the possibility of having a namesake.

"You're the one that brought us together," David explains as if the answer should be obvious, but it is obvious to no one except Regina.

Their firstborn daughter has always been destined to be named Emma. They just couldn't remember that they already had a firstborn child and that the child was fully grown and living a life neither of them would have predicted.

Emma begins to shake her head, denying them their wish. "I don't think that's…"

Regina squeezes Emma's shoulder. "Let them?" She asks.

Emma looks questioningly at her wife, but doesn't voice any of the questions swirling around in her mind. "I guess I'm honored, then." Emma tells the Nolans. "But if I turn out to be a horrible role model then you're going to have to change her name."

"Don't be ridiculous," Regina is the first to reply. "You're a hero," she says as she leans forward and places a soft kiss atop Emma's forehead. "She's exceedingly lucky to have you in her life."

"Listen to your wife, Emma," Mary orders. "She's smarter than you look."

Emma laughs, and then stands up and moves away from the new family. "I'll remember you said that."

"It's probably best you two go to the hospital," Regina interjects before this heartwarming moment leaves Regina feeling any colder.

"Don't worry, Mayor," David valiantly replies, "I'll make sure they are taken care of."

"I never expected anything less," Regina calmly replies and then wraps her arm around Emma's waist. "We still have the speech with the Governor," she reminds her wife.

"Yeah," Emma wipes her dirty hand across her shirt. "Are they ready now?"

Regina looks down at the stain Emma appears to not notice. "Let's get you cleaned up first."

She guides Emma away from the gathered crowd and leads her towards city hall. They enter the building arm in arm and remain undisturbed as they make it to Regina's private en suite.

Regina pulls out one of the clean shirts she has learned to store away for her wife, while Emma begins to wash away all signs of having just delivered her best friends baby. They move around each other in comfortable silence until Emma reaches out and captures Regina's arm. "Do you ever regret it?" She asks.

"Regret what?" Regina asks genuinely not knowing what it is her wife is asking.

"For a split second," Emma confesses, "I could have sworn you looked at Mary and David with contempt."

Immediately, Regina tries to deny the accusation being thrown at her. "That's completely…"

Emma stills Regina's words by pressing her finger gently across her wife's lips. "I saw it," she says.

In this reality, Emma knows nothing of the curse because there is no child with a book to tell her the tales of an Evil Queen. In this reality, there is no one to save. "What is it you saw?" Regina asks in lieu of telling her secrets.

Emma sighs and then presses her forehead against her wife's. "I know," she admits, "how hard it was for you to agree to never have children, and I just want you to know how much I love you for respecting my wishes."

Her wife's words pierce the Kevlar Regina has so carefully constructed. "Of course," she forces the words out, near choking on them.

Emma pulls away and looks directly into Regina's eyes. "I love you because you let me be me. You don't want me to be anyone else."

"Nor should you be anyone else." Regina reaches out and brushes her hand through Emma's hair.

"I'm just," Emma weakly tries to explain. "I don't want to be a parent, ya know?"

And Regina suspects that she should know this. This should not be a surprise. It is a thing that Emma certainly believes that they have discussed before. Beyond that, it is a thing agreed upon and apparently long since settled.

"Despite what you might think," Regina cannot help but say, "you would make an excellent mother."

"You always say that," Emma whispers.

Regina grins. "Then I must really believe it."

Emma leans forward and kisses her wife. She tries to convey just how thankful she is for the love that Regina gives her. She wants Regina to know how thankful she is that Regina isn't running away since there is no compromising when it comes to children. A child is wanted or it isn't. There is no middle ground. There is no halfway.

"Thank you for choosing me," Emma says as she pulls away.

Regina is caught off guard by Emma's words because she realizes that that is exactly what she did. She was given the choice of carrying on her life with her son or reuniting with her True Love. Sure, she hadn't known all the facts when she had made her choice. There was no way for her to know, but that didn't matter because she had still chosen.

She could have true love or she could have a child's love. She can't have both. One is always destined to be left behind or become mangled and broken.

Regina wraps her arms tightly around Emma's neck and lays her forehead against her wife's breastbone. "I'd always choose you," she confesses and her words feel like betrayal.

But she isn't the one that gets the last word. Regina swears she can hear Destiny laughing uproariously as it points down at her whispering, 'I told you so. I always win. I am the master of your Fate.'


	3. What of Mercy?

Thank you for all of your reviews. They are very much appreciated. I hope that you all have/are/will have a wonderful new year.

* * *

Regina sits in the crowd as in awe with the performance taking place on the stage as every other citizen of Storybrooke. The music blares from the live orchestra signaling the final battle fought by fated lovers against the Evil Witch seeking their destruction. The young hero raises his sword and then drives it into the heart of the Evil Witch just before the witch can shove the young heroine to her death.

The love story playing out on stage, through a mix of acrobatics, ballet and modern dance, Regina acknowledges seemed rather pedestrian and unimaginative at first. Its opening scene consisted of a woman dressed in an ornate black costume that made her look like she existed from a sky full of distant stars uttering a simple cliché to the audience, "Once upon a time…" Then, dancers rushed to center stage and the story of lovers torn apart by an Evil Witch began to unfold. The music pulsed with the performers as they fought for love itself against the great evil, and all the while the Woman in Black watched.

At times, she would rush up to one of the lovers or the witch pulling at them, but it was never clear if she was trying to condemn or condone the heroes' or the Evil Witch's actions. The scenes played out in an epic rush of music and dance until this ending moment—the witch falling to her death with her heart pierced by the heroes sword.

Regina tightens her hold on Emma's hand as she watches the witch's demise with sympathy. She knew in the beginning that this would have to be the ending since good always wins. She knows firsthand how not even the best laid plans of an Evil Witch can unfurl the web of fated love.

Just as the crowd is ready to cheer for the love reunited, the spotlight shifts onto the witch's still body. The music changes from the heroes' heroic theme to a sad medley that brings attention to the lonely soul lost to the world. Once again, the woman from the sky appears. She wraps her arms around the witch who is left to die alone. Whether the woman is an Angel, Death or Fate itself is unclear, but she places her hands across the witch's wound. She looks upon the woman with empathy and tears start falling from her eyes.

Suddenly, the lights shift again going away from the witch and the being from the sky. Another scene begins to unfold of a woman giving birth. The dancers around her simulate a raging battle occurring as she fights to bring life into the world. The dance goes on as the woman screams out. Then, from the darkness the woman who is known to the crowd as the Evil Witch emerges. Yet, she no longer wears the ugly mask of evil. She is young and beautiful and she defends the woman giving birth through use of brilliantly bright magic. The music shifts as the new heroine tries valiantly to save the day.

The woman gives birth, the baby's cries fill the air, and the young child is immediately placed in the young heroine's arms. The mother and the heroine share a brief moment before the mother breathes her last breath. The heroic witch cradles the baby closer to her, protecting it from the battle. She eventually places the newborn into the arms of her King. The King looks down upon his child and then with questioning eyes looks to the witch.

With solemn eyes she bows and shakes her head admitting to the death of the Queen. Full of heartbreak and rage, the King turns his back on the witch and then in a swift motion runs his forefinger across his throat ordering the witch's death.

Once again, the Woman in Black appears. She steps next to the King and tries to get him to see her, but his eyes remain closed and his back remains turned. She then steps to the soldiers, but they move around her as if she doesn't exist to them. Finally, she moves to the witch and places a gentle hand across the witch's face, but the moment is broken as the soldiers lift their weapons and the witch's face fills with betrayal. She is again fighting using her magic in an desperate attempt to defend her life.

She narrowly escapes the king's men, but when she does her mask of evil reappears as she staggers away.

And again the music shifts. The lights refocus on the couple reuniting in love. They are ignorant of the witch's sacrifice and ignorant of the fact that the Evil Witch is the only reason they are able to stand together for it was the hero's father that was King.

From the audience's silence, it is obvious they no longer rejoice Love's reunion. Instead, they are mourning the Evil Witch who is once again being held in the arms of a mystical being. The woman looks up to the lovers and then down to the dead witch. She leans forward and places a soft kiss onto the witch's lips.

Everyone, including Regina and Emma, holds their breath hoping that perhaps this kiss will act like True Love's. They hope that the Witch will rise and all truth will be told. They wish for the witch to be given a second chance.

"Mercy," the woman from the sky whispers as she pulls away from the witch's lips. "Why wouldn't any of you listen?"

The music shifts—this time it is soft and remorseful notes that fall from the orchestra. It is as if the very instruments themselves are crying out at the injustice of the witch's death. The audience immediately knows that the Evil Witch is not going to be resurrected. Her death is final as was the decisions made by the lovers, the king, and by the Evil Witch.

The woman crying for the Evil Witch is crying for everyone. She is not Fate nor is she Death and nor is she an Angel. She is Mercy and she cries because no one gave her deference in this story of Once Upon a Time. No one listened to her. From the very beginning, if anyone had only listened…

Emma reaches across and with her free hand wipes away Regina's tears. The orchestra plays their final note and the performers break character. The world the audience is captured in dissipates and they are planted back into their reality. It takes a moment for the crowd to recover, but eventually they begin to clap and give the performance a seal of approval by offering a standing ovation.

The lights on stage raise and the woman who plays Mercy steps in front of the audience with a microphone in hand. She waits for the applause to die down before she tries to speak. "Wow," she says drawing out the word. "You guys are awesome." She smiles brightly as she walks across the stage towards the VIP section where Emma and Regina are standing.

"I'd like to quickly thank you all for letting us come and be guests in your home, but I also want to thank Mayor Mills and Sheriff Swan for all the work they've done to allow our little traveling theatre company to come to Storybrooke. So, thank you both," she tells Regina and Emma meeting their eyes with her own. "Also, I believe Mayor Mills wanted to make a quick announcement." She holds out the microphone to Regina who quickly wipes her eyes before she makes her way onto the stage.

She takes the microphone from the other woman, ready to take her place on center stage to play her part of The Mayor.

"Firstly," Regina offers the crowd a diplomatic smile, "I'd like to congratulate all the performers and musicians on a job well done." She and the crowd offer another round of applause. The performers are smiling and bow for the crowd once more. "I think they have all done an excellent job in kicking off Storybrooke's first annual performance of Theatre in the Park."

In answer to Storybrooke's need for more cultural diversity—the only area in which Storybrooke had scored a four out of ten on that ridiculous magazine's 'Best Places to Live in the United States' ranking—Regina put together the outdoor theatre. She advertised the open slots for performances, knowing that since Storybrooke had attracted so much attention, they wouldn't have too much trouble booking performances. It was a perfect solution to letting outsiders in without letting them stay since Regina still tightly monitors who enters and who gets to stay in Storybrooke.

Regina looks over the crowd, knowing that her simple solution is paying off and will offer her even greater popularity. Though, popularity is not something she actively pursues. She has no need for it. No matter how popular she is, she will always be in charge of Storybrooke whether or not she is mayor. "I would also like to invite all of you to the after party being held at the Mayor's Mansion." The party is Emma's idea. Emma had argued that if Regina was going to drag her to an artsy ballet, modern dance thing than the least she should get out of it was a party. Regina had reluctantly agreed. "Tonight's performers have graciously agreed to attend to provide all of you an opportunity for pictures, autographs and a chance to get to know the performers better."

Regina looks over the crowd already feeling anxious about just how many people will be invading her home. Though, none of her anxiety shows. She looks as mayoral as she ever has. Only Emma can even tell Regina had shed a single tear over the Evil Witch's demise. "I hope you all had a wonderful evening and I look forward to seeing you all as guests in my home," she finishes before handing the microphone back to the lead actress and then walking off stage.

Emma is waiting for her with a knowing look, clearly aware that Regina is no more looking forward to the citizenry of Storybrooke invading her home than she is of a dog pissing on her leg. "Thank you for throwing me a party," Emma whispers to her wife as soon as Regina is securely ensconced in her arms. "I know you hate people in our space."

"Well," Regina clears her throat and looks over at the now empty stage, "Perhaps a celebration is needed to lift the town's spirits after that Tragedy."

"Yeah," Emma pulls Regina closer to her, "I thought you said it was a sappy love story."

"I thought it would be." She had assumed that it would be like every other worn out love story that was made for the stage. She hadn't bothered to research it much past the summary sent to her for approval by the theatre company's manager. "But I'll admit that it was a pleasant surprise." She didn't think that this world offered any fairytales where the hand of 'justice' was meant to be stayed.

"It was," Emma murmurs her agreement. "I've always hated it that everybody accepts without question the bad guy's death."

Unknowingly, Emma's words speak to the very truths she's lived by since she was revealed to be a hero. She, of course, has no memories of her own acts of mercy. The memories she has are diluted from the curse. They have been fitted and shaped to fit into the world they live in.

Regina, however, recalls all of the events that came before. Her memories are real untainted things that don't have false blanks filled in. They are raw and precious, and they are hers alone. To her, Emma's 'hypothetical' mercy is very real, but she cannot draw her wife to her and reminisce about how it was Emma saved her because there is no honest reminiscing. She and Emma no longer share their memories of their first meeting, the first kiss, the first date... They no longer share the bricks of happiness. They only get to share the house their love built.

It is the curse hidden within the curse, and it is the lie that breeds only more lies. It doesn't matter that in everything else Regina is honest and faithful. At the end of the day when she curls up with her wife, she will have at least uttered one lie, be it a lie of omission or a lie of deceit.

"You are a hero," Regina admits because she can admit to nothing else. She can't thank Emma for believing in mercy and for believing in her.

Emma laughs, thinking the idea ridiculous. "I'm just a small town Sheriff. The bravest thing I've ever done is ask you out."

"You are a hero," Regina says again but adds, "to me. You are a hero to me."

"You know what?" Emma asks as she leans over and places a quick kiss against Regina's lips. "Maybe we're the sappy love story," she declares as she pulls away. Her eyes glisten with her love. She doesn't know that her words are dependents born from the parent deception. She doesn't know that their love is tragic and desperate.

"Maybe." Regina nearly chokes on the word, because she knows that they only live on the edges of true happiness. They always have. "We should get to the party." She pulls away from Emma but doesn't completely abandon their contact. She takes Emma's hand in hers and then leads them towards the parking lot.

Emma doesn't say anything, but she can tell that her wife has pulled just a little bit further away. It is a pattern she notices happens more and more as the months pass them by. She sees the distance Regina places between them. She sees the lies when they are told. She sees the inconsistencies that sometimes manifest in their small town.

Yet, she says nothing because Emma is not brave enough to ask. She is afraid that the only love she's known will break away and she will once again be the lonely nomad she had been before she came to Storybrooke. She is afraid that she will find the truth that Regina hides away and then she will have no choice but to act.

If Regina had the power to decipher the truth from a lie, then she would have seen that Emma always told the truth when she admitted to not being a hero. She would see that Emma refuses the responsibility. She chooses to be the sheriff of a small town. She chooses to live in a world of ignorance even if bits of it don't feel quite right, because some part of her knows that she is the hero that could unwittingly drive her sword into the Evil Witch's heart. She also knows that would be the only one that would mourn the witch's death.


	4. Happiness on a Cliff

As far as parties went, this one was turning into a resounding success. The guests were enjoying the free food and the free entertainment from the impromptu jam session that the actors and musicians organized by pulling out instruments and urging the townspeople of Storybrooke to show their talents. The atmosphere is jovial and as Regina looks over the revelers, she sees happiness in their faces. Some look happier than she's ever seen them.

Selfishly, she watches them, her anger slowly coming to a simmer at them not knowing that she is the one giving them this. She is the one that feeds the well that sustains their happiness. It is her magic and her skill that allows them these privileges of humanity that they may have never experienced in their own world.

Often, their world of magic was a dangerous and unforgiving place cloaked in the beauty of mystical forests and wondrous oceans. It was all too common for high kings to send their soldiers to fight battles spawned from trivial disputes. Everyone knew war from having seen it firsthand. For all of the pomp and circumstance that shrouded their world, it was a brutal place.

This world without magic, while it could be brutal, was still far more peaceful. The people fought for equality even if at times they didn't understand the words meaning. They didn't accept war as a given circumstance, but questioned its merits. Its people had evolved past high kings and rally for freedom and independence instead.

Here, even Snow White would be judged harshly for ruling a kingdom that didn't participate in democracy. She wouldn't be accepted merely because she touts to be on the right side of Good. In this world, there is no such thing as perfection. Everyone has cracks.

"What are you thinking about?" Emma questions as she steps in behind Regina and then wraps her arms around her wife's waist.

Regina falls into Emma's embrace, finding comfort in the feeling of Emma's sturdiness against her back. "They look happy," she says.

Emma looks out at the crowd. One of the actors is attempting to teach Sydney a hip hop dance move. It's an attempt that is sure to fail, but the people surrounding them are smiling as Sydney stiffly attempts to mimic the actor's movements. "They're having fun."

"And why aren't you out there dancing with them?" Regina wonders.

"I haven't had enough to drink," Emma admits.

"I'm sure they'd love for you to join them," Regina pushes, knowing that there are times Emma will hold back because of misconceived notions of Regina judging her.

There was, perhaps, a time when Regina might have urged Emma to hold back and would have called for restraint, but she sees no point in doing so now. If they are living in their last chance, then she wants Emma to live without walking under a cloud of regrets. Regina is willing to carry both of their burdens and regrets alone.

"Join me?" Emma asks after a moment of hesitation.

"You want me to do Hip Hop?" An incredulous look covers Regina's features. She's not one for making a fool of herself.

"No," Emma answers, knowing her wife would never so openly step out of her element amongst the people of Storybrooke. "I might have requested something a little different."

Just then, the same actress that played the Woman in Black steps out into the middle of the crowd and raises her arms. The music stops and Sydney is given a break from tripping over his rhythm-less feet. The crowd settles, smiles of enjoyment still displaying across their faces. The actress sits at the Grand Piano Regina has kept in her home mostly for show—it's just another symbol of their manufactured world.

"It's been a great night hasn't it?" The actress asks instantly garnering applause from the crowd.

She grins as she runs the fingers of her right hand through her dark curly hair. Off of the stage, the actress has transformed. She no longer looks ominous, but instead seems demure. She's changed into fitted white tuxedo pants accompanied by a white tuxedo shirt and is the direct opposite of the Woman in Black.

"Okay," the woman continues, "so since there's a beautiful full moon outside, I'd like to sing something for the lovers." She looks over the people surrounding her. Her hazel eyes linger on Emma for the briefest of moments. The silent act of communication instantly lets Regina know that Emma's request is being granted under a guise of discretion.

"Come on," Emma whispers as she steps up next to Regina and guides her closer to the impromptu dance floor. As soon as they stand benignly in the crowd, their entertainer turns to the piano and gently lays her fingers upon the keys. She plays the opening notes to the song and the crowd pairs off. Someone dims the lights and the room is transformed. Those without Lovers wander off towards the plates of food or form their own circles of conversation. The Lovers are left to sway against each other from under the gentle push of the music.

As the open room and its occupants give into the transition, the Woman in White's voice begins to accompany the strokes of the piano's keys. It fills the room with a lover's song that is slow and even, mindful that there is no reason to rush to the end. The night isn't young, but in this world a clock striking midnight doesn't mean the end of a spell. Here, midnight just means the beginning of a new day.

Regina lets Emma lead them in the dance. She rests her body against Emma's, finding comfort and protection from all the things and thoughts that plague here with growing frequency. She is trying to figure out how she had lived in a cursed world for so long before. She is searching for the secrets she has forgotten, because she must sustain Paradise. She is the only one ensuring that their world doesn't implode.

"You're thinking again," Emma whispers, not bothering to hide her disappointment in her inability to pull Regina from whatever keeps tearing her away.

Regina shakes her head. "I'm not," she defends herself.

Finding some hint of hibernating bravery, Emma leans forward. "What's going on with you?" she asks, not unkindly but also without room for Regina to retreat.

"I'm sorry," Regina automatically replies since she has grown accustomed to apologizing to Emma.

Emma hears the rote response and sighs. She stops their movements but doesn't release the hold she has on Regina's waist. Before Regina can protest, Emma leads them away from their guests, who must assume that their mayor and sheriff are going off to indulge in what it is lovers do. It is a natural assumption to be made based on how closely Regina and Emma danced and how quietly they whispered words only meant for the other.

As Emma and Regina reach a safe distance away from the crowd, the final notes to the lovers' song plays. Soft applause invades the confines of the room but is quickly muffled as Emma shuts the door to Regina's office. Concern has finally overridden her desire to maintain ignorance over whatever it is that pulls Regina away. The breaking point had come as she watched Regina overlook the crowd. She could not recall Regina ever looking so bitterly angry before, and it is worrisome that Regina would display such emotion over a group of friends enjoying themselves.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" Emma asks.

"There is nothing going on," Regina easily denies, and her denial is truthful. There is no big bad coming to knock down their door. They are far removed from the day pleas fell from Emma's lips asking Regina to defend Storybrooke against the evils that befell it and its heroes.

If Regina's uncharacteristic passivity jars Emma in any way, she doesn't show it. "I just made an outrageously romantic gesture out there." Emma points to the closed door. "And all you did was dance with me."

Regina looks to the nearest clock. It's twelve-fifteen. They had agreed that the party would be over by ten. "I'm just tired." It is a weak excuse, almost as bad as feigning a headache to avoid unwelcomed advances or citing a need to do laundry as reason to cancel a date.

If she didn't know with absolute certainty that Regina loved her, then Emma might assume her wife was having an affair. "Damn it, Regina," Emma pleads, "you can talk to me."

Regina closes her eyes and takes in a careful breath and then slowly releases it. She does want to talk, but she can't. "Did you know that the Governor wanted me to campaign with him while he makes his bid for the senate?" she casually asks.

"What?" Emma tries to grasp onto this new conversation. She has lost practice in decoding Regina's language that sometimes takes on the complexity of a six lane highway as opposed to maintaining the simplicity of a two lane country road.

"He thought I might make a worthy successor." Though, it is clear that his real intent was to use Regina's charisma and charm than to provide her the opportunity to climb the political ladder.

As one of the few people in Storybrooke that can recall a life outside of it, Emma isn't particularly thrilled at the prospect of engaging in a political life. "Do you want to be Governor?"

Who, Regina wonders, would want to be Governor when they had been a Queen? It is a demotion that doesn't carry any appeal. "Of course I don't," Regina easily admits, speaking only the truth. She has no aspirations to be anything more than she currently is.

"Then why bring it up?" Emma wonders.

Emma's question is a valid one. Regina could have mentioned the Governor's desires at any time in passing, but instead she chose to use it now as a barrier. It is something she can talk about that is safe and uncomplicated. It doesn't involve curses twice cast or royalty.

Again, Regina looks at the clock. They've been talking for no longer than a couple of minutes, and though much could have been said in that time very little has been. In Regina's mind, there isn't much to say.

"Full disclosure, Dear," Regina eventually answers her wife's question. "I wouldn't want you to be caught unaware if the subject should come up."

Still lost in the waterfall of this conversation, Emma isn't sure if she can take anything Regina says at face value. The wave of doubt that fills her is comforting in its familiarity. Her very being knows that Regina's words cannot always be trusted. "Is that it then?" Emma questions. "It's the only thing you have to say?"

Regina looks over her wife and she knows that she is looking at a hero. Hell, she is looking at her hero. Even a curse twice cast can't sustain the barrage of Emma's unknowing conviction. "What if," Regina licks her lips and pulls at the bits of bravado she's maintained from being the Evil Queen. "What if I were to tell you that you once begged me to cast a curse?"

Emma's eyes rake over her wife. Her body stills and she is suddenly aware that she has pushed things too far. She is standing on the precipice of learning something that she has willingly kept on the edges of her periphery vision. "We should get back to the party," Emma says as she turns away, the bravery she found is now gone.

"What if," Regina continues as if Emma didn't opt for retreat, "I told you that we once had a son?"

It wouldn't take much for the dam of Emma's memories to break—she is the hero after all. She could never be completely disconnected from the consequences of the curse. No matter Regina's design, Emma has always had access to the past. It has just always been her choice not to access it.

"There is no curse," Emma carefully enunciates. "There's no such thing as magic."

Regina's eyes widen and she is equally stunned by the fact that her curse isn't as strong as she had thought and that Emma has so willingly pushed away the responsibility of being the savior. "Why?" She whispers, mostly in an effort to understand why Emma so readily let Regina carry the burden of the curse alone.

Emma doesn't turn back to look at Regina. There is no excuse for the lies she is participating in. All of her memories aren't completely comprehensible, she's known that this world isn't quite as it should be. There are things pulling at her that let her know that it is she who should stand up and fight. Though, she is unsure what it is she should be fighting against. "Let's go back to the party," she says in lieu of an explanation she can't offer.

Suddenly, the power behind her curse makes sense. Regina never did have complete control of magic in this world. She always needed Emma's assistance to make anything magical stick. It was the original thing that had bound them in this world, and it would seem that it continued to bind them.

"I think I need to take a walk," Regina keeps her distance. She doesn't want to engage Emma in further conversation and she isn't quite prepared for the onslaught of anger that fills her.

"Do you want company?" Emma offers knowing that her wife needs her space and that their conversation will have to reach its conclusion at another time.

"No," Regina is quick to answer. Now that she knows she is dealing with _her_ Emma, she sees no reason to walk about and play the part of the doting wife. There is reason for her to be angry and she needs distance to sort through exactly what it is she is feeling. She walks past Emma and then opens the closed door so that she can escape the stifling weight of Emma's unexpected revelation.

She walks through the house until she exits to her garden and is looking upon her apple tree. It is alive and well, and Regina can't help but wonder if it is Emma's magic or hers that keeps it alive. She no longer knows which parts of this world is sustained by her magic and which parts are sustained by Emma's. This is now their curse cast together—Regina as the spark and Emma as the flame.

"I'm sorry," a voice calls out from the darkness. "I didn't know you were out here. I just wanted some fresh air."

"Nonsense," Regina replies as she easily falls into the role she is so familiar with, "feel free to join me in enjoying the night air."

Turning to the source of disturbance, Regina easily finds irony in the fact that the woman who sang the song for Lovers is the same woman who is now disturbing her.

The woman walks up next to Regina and looks at the tree. "I didn't know that apples grew in winter."

It is a sign of how strong Emma's and Regina's magic are together. "This is a special tree," Regina idly comments. "It's been bred to sustain the seasons."

"Oh," the actress dumbly replies clearly trying to reason out the benefits of a tree never going dormant. "That's interesting."

With nothing further to say, they fall into silence each looking upon the tree full of red apples glistening with life on the cold winter night. The actress wraps her arms around her torso, perhaps trying to fend off the cold that her thin blouse offers no protection against. Her right hand rubs across her left arm, causing the stones on a ring adorning her ring finger to glisten against the light of the moon.

"That's a beautiful ring," Regina comments.

The actress pulls her hand away from her arm and gazes down at her ring, almost as if to offer a reminder of what it is she's wearing. It is a simple white gold band that contains a row of black diamonds that run opposite of a row of brilliant cut diamonds. The rows touch just briefly before they break apart turning in opposite directions. It reminds Regina of the contrasts the woman has been presenting throughout the night.

Regina cuts her eyes away from the woman and looks back at her tree. "Who are you?" she asks knowing that some of the most dangerous predators announce themselves from under a shroud of benevolence.

"Did you enjoy the show?" The woman answers the question with one of her own, but doesn't give Regina the opportunity to answer. "I thought a parable on the merits of mercy would be more to your liking than a fairy tale."

"And why would you care to entertain me, dear?" Regina feels the crackle of magic pushing at her in preparation for her defense.

"I was hoping to, perhaps, gift you with a lesson," the woman replies.

"On the merits of mercy?" Regina wonders since she learned that lesson long ago when she first fell in love with Emma.

"No," the woman easily answers, "that lesson was for everyone else. The lesson for you, my dear Queen, was that not even Mercy can save you. The evil witch did still die in the end."

Magic crackles on Regina's fingertips. "Who are you?" she asks again.

The woman looks down to Regina's hands. "There is a reason why magic was cast from this place."

"I'm not the one that brought it back," Regina quickly points out, "Rumplestiltskin did. Unfortunately, he died in the battle with Cora and Hook so I guess you have no reason to be here."

"I could protect you when you first came." The woman looks up at the sky. "You came without power and your hero was always destined to break your curse, but now," the woman sighs, "I can't stop it."

"Stop what?"

"The evil of this world is drawn to power and you, Child, have broken the balance." The woman turns back to Regina and moves in closer. "Magic always has a price."

"I've already paid it," Regina declares, "with Henry."

The woman tilts her head and looks at Regina as a disappointed teacher might gaze upon her student. "His loss was not your price. You weren't the only one to cast the curse."

Regina stands straighter, ready to lash out at the woman who has quickly overstayed her welcome. "I think it's time you left."

The woman moves faster than Regina's eyes can track. She pushes Regina up against the apple tree, the palm of her hand flush against Regina's chest. Her touch is hot and burns away any chill Regina might have been experiencing from the winter air.

Regina is ready to lash out with her magic, but stops when she realizes that they are not alone. They stand outside a house full of people who know nothing of magic or its power. "Release me."

"Be prepared to draw your swords. Evil comes in many forms." The woman cautions, then releases Regina and turns away. She walks back into the house without turning back to see if her warning leaves an impression on the Queen.

Regina sags against the tree and slowly slides down the trunk. "Fuck," she curses under her breath not quite sure what else she can do. She knows she must take the warning she has been given seriously since this is the first time any being with power in this world has bothered to make its self known. Though, she suspects that she should have been more mindful of this world's natural laws. She shouldn't have assumed that she and Emma were the only ones with power.

Feeling eyes upon her, Regina looks to her home. Emma is standing in the doorway, keeping her distance but still offering a watchful eye. Regina meets Emma's gaze and she wonders just how long Emma has stood and watched choosing not to interfere. She wonders just how often, since the recasting of the curse, Emma chose to turn away.

Regina pulls herself up from the ground, never breaking eye contact with her wife. She brushes off her clothes and then walks back to the house where Emma is waiting with an open door. "You will tell me everything you remember," she orders as she reaches her wife.

Emma visibly swallows as she nods her head in agreement. "You'll hear my side," she promises, "but I don't think it's gonna change anything."

"No," Regina sighs. "I suspect that it won't."


End file.
